Stadium issue clouds Halifax’s CFL dreams
HALIFAX Atlantic Canada’ s longheld dream of wooing the CFL east of Montreal has been reignited after the league confirmed it’s in talks with a “professional, enthusiastic and impressive” group of prospective owners rallying for a Halifax franchise.
But advocates and experts acknowledged Friday that sobering questions remain: Does the East Coast have the fan base to support a Canadian Football League franchise? Is the business community interested in sponsoring a team? And, perhaps most importantly, who will foot the bill for a new Halifax stadium?
“The CFL is going to want to see a stable ownership group with deep pockets, which appears to be the case,” said Moshe Lander, a Concordia University professor who specializes in the economics of sports.
“The fight is going to be who is going to pay for the stadium.”
Stadiums hardly ever yield the economic benefits that are promised, Lander said, noting that it would need a minimum of 30,000 seats, but the “sweet spot” is closer to 40,000.
“You would ideally like to incorporate sponsorship,” he said. “Sobeys would be an ideal anchor sponsor.”
Halifax Mayor Mike Savage called a potential CFL team an “exciting opportunity,” but said the municipality will not be leading the charge.
“A stadium is not a capital priority at this time,” he said. “Any proposal would need to be private sector led and make economic sense for the municipality.”
A football stadium would have to be built “without putting taxpayers at risk,” Savage said, and the team would have to be an “Atlantic play” to make economic sense.
“The big issue really is the corporate support,” he said. “This is the financial centre of Atlantic Canada and I think the CFL sees that if you want to have a franchise that is going to be successful there has to be deep financial roots and commercial support.”
The league said in a statement there have been discussions with a group interested in securing a franchise for Halifax, but the talks are preliminary.
The CFL said it won’t be conducting any interviews on a prospective team for Halifax until Grey Cup week and the State of the League address. A league official said a timetable for potentially awarding a franchise has not yet been established.
Among members of the group is Bruce Bowser, president of AMJ Campbell Van Lines, who said in a statement they are “incredibly excited and bullish regarding the opportunity to bring this great sport and great league to the Atlantic region.”
Lander said Halifax, with a major international airport, growing population, major universities and development, is a good location for a team.
“It’s odd to claim you’re the Canadian Football League without having representation in Atlantic Canada,” he said.
TSN reported Thursday the group pitching a CFL team made a presentation to the league’s board of governors several weeks ago in Toronto. The report also identified Anthony LeBlanc, a former president and CEO of the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes, as a partner in the group.
The CFL awarded a conditional franchise to Halifax in 1982 — it was named the Atlantic Schooners — but financing for a stadium never came about. The league played regular-season games in Moncton, N.B., in 2010, ’11 and ‘13.
The population of Halifax was about 403,000 in 2016, according to Statistics Canada.